Breakdown of To jest łóżko, które kupiłem w listopadzie.
Questions & Answers about To jest łóżko, które kupiłem w listopadzie.
To jest literally means “this is” (or “that is” in some contexts). It’s a fixed phrase used to introduce or point at something. The word to here is a neuter demonstrative pronoun and is always used in To jest … regardless of the gender or number of the noun you’re introducing.
You do not say Ten jest or Ta jest in this construction—only To jest.
Yes. In Polish, any clause introduced by a relative pronoun (takim jak który, która, które, którzy, których) is set off by a comma. So you always write
To jest łóżko, które kupiłem w listopadzie.
The comma marks the start of the subordinate (relative) clause.
Który means “which” or “that” and agrees in gender, number, and case with its antecedent (the noun it refers to).
- Gender: masculine/feminine/neuter
- Number: singular/plural
- Case: depends on its role in the relative clause
Here, łóżko is neuter singular, and inside the clause it’s the direct object of kupiłem, so it’s in accusative. The neuter singular accusative form of który is które (which happens to look the same as the nominative).
Past-tense verbs in Polish agree with the speaker’s gender (and number).
- A male speaker says kupiłem
- A female speaker says kupiłam
Since the sentence uses kupiłem, we know the speaker is male.
- The preposition w (“in”) takes the locative case.
- Listopad (November) in the locative becomes listopadzie.
So w listopadzie = “in November.” You never say na listopadzie for months, and w does not change to we because listopadzie starts with a consonant cluster (no special e is needed).
Polish stress is almost always on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable.
- łóżko: two syllables ['wuʐ.ko], stress on ŁÓŻ
- kupiłem: three syllables [kuˈpʲi.wɛm], stress on PI
Pronunciation tips:
- ł = English w
- ó = u sound
- ż = zh as in “measure”
You’d switch to the plural forms of the demonstrative, noun, relative pronoun, and verb gender/number marker:
To są łóżka, które kupiłem w listopadzie.
- To są instead of To jest
- łóżka (plural of łóżko)
- które remains the same in neuter plural accusative/nominative
- kupiłem stays kupiłem (1st sg. past) because the speaker is still talking about “I” buying them